MediaZone4K

1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

It’d be a heck of a lot cheaper for Nexstar to use the SAM NewsNation theme on all of their stations than handling dozens of themes, some of which are no different from the others (SAM’s custom theme for WJZY being the lone exception).

 

If Nexstar wants to make NewsNation anything more than a quick cash grab (thanks to retrans fees and nothing more) they’ll push the NN branding on all of their owned and/or operated stations. NewsNation PIX 11, NewsNation WGN 9, NewsNation KTLA 5, NewsNation WJW 8, etc.

They should reverse the naming so it doesn't sound excessively long like CBS' O&Os

"PIX 11 NewsNation at 6" flows better. 

"PIX 11 NewsNation's Kaity Tong is in Midtown with the latest."

59 minutes ago, NYNewsCoverage said:

For those wondering about the whereabouts of former AM anchor Betty Nguyen, she is now joining WFOR in Miami as morning anchor: https://www.adweek.com/tvspy/betty-nguyen-to-join-wfor-in-miami-as-morning-co-anchor/246985/

Glad she will have a new job; it was sad to me that PIX just suddenly let her go.

Do we have an explanation as to why Pix axed her?

The remaining daytime offerings are slim for the picking. Realistically how much news can stations use to fill gaps before turning into KTLA. Fox 10 may have no choice but to air both shows in reruns.

53 minutes ago, Glimmer said:

You did!

 

The more I think about it, there’s no way WB won’t offer a rerun package of both for at least next season, right?

I suspect we'll be hearing about Rachael Ray's show any day now. I question the futures of GH & Y&R after their anniversaries pass. The Talk has been renewed though.

Ryan Seacrest, Dr Phil, Judges Milian and Mathis, James Corden, maybe Rachael Ray, what next? Hopefully the aforementioned court shows remain in syndication.

1 minute ago, Glimmer said:

In something of a shocker, both The People’s Court and Judge Mathis are ending this season

Literally said they were the last holdouts weeks ago.

Looks like Today is returning to some 2013 camera angles.

The mixed utilization of this angle and the window is cool rather than one way for the entire broadcast. Overall though the studio needs to be redone.

Can't believe it's going on 10 years since Today's reformatting! The set reversed course from an orange rebrand back to baby blue. IMO orange/gold hues with window frames, lamps, cityscape wallpaper and monitors looked better: 

19 hours ago, bc485 said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoqbDL4rDf0/?igshid=MDM4ZDc5MmU=
 

Looks like WCBS was testing a revised background on its set earlier this week.  Note the large blue curves on the left and right sides of the background on the TV screen in this video.  Could we be close to a launch at WCBS?

 

Edit: Took a screenshot from Instagram to zoom in on the background.

 

Hopefully they don't tinker with the background too much. WCBS has the best set and background in the market.

3 hours ago, tvtime07 said:

 

Looks like more changes in the syndication world, this time to TV's number 1 daytime talker, I wonder If Disney tried their hardest to have him stay onboard. I can't really blame Seacrest though, he's a busy guy and the back and forth during Idol season must be really exhausting. Kudos to him being a hard worker, but his personal time must have been quite limited. I really thought Ripa was going to pass the baton to Seacrest in terms of succession.

 

Consuelos will be a good match with Ripa, but if they both "retire" at the same time years down the road, then it will ultimately bring some instability and more questions about the future of the Live franchise, it is a personality driven show that needs chemistry; I wonder if Gelman has started mapping out possible successors already. Heck, since they are a couple, Ripa and Consuelos will most likely be off during the same time period when they go on family vacations together, so they will most likely have trial runs with matching up people when they're off.  It does gives GMA3 an open possibility of taking over the slot as well if that show can get their act together.

 

Personally, I would have preferred someone like Josh Groban taking over, he was my favorite when he tried out all those years ago. 

Unexected but not surpsing given how busy Seacrest is. Mark is a solid choice. I suppose Kelly didn't want to go through months of guest hosts and the audience is already used Consuelos. Hopefully the saying about working with your spouce doesn't happen here -- but they all ready worked together on All My Children.

I expected Kelly to leave before Ryan, in that case Maria Menunos would have been a solid replacement. 

As for the future of the show, (this was tried already) but Michael Strahan, Sarah Haines and Keke Palmer were good together. I believe their show didn't work out because GMA 3 was an unkown show duplicating a saturated format. LIVE on the other hand has an established brand and maybe the trio --or Michael and one of the two ladies-- would work. But please keep LIVE going rather than replacing it with GMA 3. 

2 hours ago, groupwfan said:

linearDRIFT at it again. And that sounds like a Arnold/NONSTOP Collab for their new theme...

Minus the L3 boxes, looks like an improvement

2 hours ago, mountainave said:

I don't love the quarter eye logo behind text in the bottom left, but otherwise, I think it's a great open. 

 

There is a marked disconnect between what TV news junkies on a message board like and what the general public likes.  Is it how Cronkite presented the news?  No.  But this style is what catches people's attention in 2023 and it has sent ABC WNT to #1.  I actually quite liked the cuts syncing with the music.  I think this version nicely delivers the headlines in an active, attention-holding way without the doomsday drama of WNT("As we come on the air"..."Happening right now"...every verb ending in -ing).  

Fair points.

I wonder, does the public think what we get now is quality journalism or are they just consuming the best of a bad situation (WNT and GMA being #1)?

Though standards have dropped, even less media savy people complain about CNN & FNC so there is some understanding of good versus bad--even if they aren't basing their opinions off the Cronkite era like us. 

Maybe I'll die alone on this hill alone, but there must to be a way to cultivate a modern day audience around a better quality product while being profitable. 

18 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

It feels like watching a TikTok that's so professionally edited it really has no life (yes, I use TikTok). I understand the point of it in keeping you informed, but if you've watched it, you've gotten the entire newscast. You're not sticking around for whatever geriatric health news Norah mentions at the end and the geriatric drug ads in-between.

What this tells me, along with watching NBC and ABC, is that the days of 'the world in 26 minutes' and giving breathing room to stories are long gone. If you want detail beyond a newscast, a subscription to the Washington Post will do much more than a TV newscast. I knew things weren't looking good when the early morning newscasts and First Look abandoned the format, and now even the evening shows are done with tradition.

Network news now is in the business of ADHD pacing and high story count. Cram 'em with as much dumbed down info as possible in the shortest amount of time to sustain their shrinking attention spans.

This is a tall order but all media needs to collectively slow things down a bit. How fast can we really go as a society. All of this tik-tok level pacing we consume is giving us collective attention defecit.  It's coming not just at the expense of quality journalism but how we process information. 

4 hours ago, TennTV1983 said:

 

This is how you give viewers whiplash, ladies and gentlemen.

It's too much, too chaotic, too loud and cheap looking. At least the long WNT open is just David introducing multiple stories one at a time. The CBS This Morning eye opener was good, they should have played off of that more.

2 hours ago, atlnews2 said:

What i hate about all the evening newscasts (WNT, NN, EN) is that they all feel so rushed. From the opens, to the stories, the bumpers, everything. It's like watching at 2X speed of normal. I'd wish they'd slow down and let the stories breath instead of cramming as much into 20 min as possible.

The Evening News was always faster paced, going back to the Rather days. At least they were well written, didn't overuse present tense, didn't seem like they were shouting, and didn't splash "Breaking News" over everything. 

I miss the days of the one story cold open, intro, then cut to anchor. If we have to introduce muliple stories the Bob Schiffer era did it well:

Big names as substitute anchors:

Ed Bradley in for Bob Schieffer (1980)

Katie Couric in for Tom Brokaw (2000)

Brian Williams in for Meredith Vieira (approx 2008)

On 2/10/2023 at 8:24 PM, Encore Emp said:

 All they care about is that money nowadays.

They always did, except now it's at the expense of quality.

36 minutes ago, B2r4a6n said:

I don't understand why Adam is solo for an hour newscast at 5pm but 6pm has two anchors? 

 

My lineup would be... 

 

TINY: Darlene and Michael 

11am and 5pm: Adam and Rana or Gilma 

4pm, 7pm and 11pm: David and Natalie

6pm: Chuck solo.  

 

Also, when an anchor is absent, another anchor should fill in. It's more noticeable that the other anchor is absent when there's only one. 

I like this lineup. It's simpler than my suggestions. The only issuse with making Chuck a solo anchor is I don't believe he  works 5 days a week. He'd need a co anchor to keep that slot consistent rather than rotating subs. 

News stations these days negelect that consistency of personalities is key for daytime television. People --maybe less so now-- tune in for who is reporting the news just as much as the news itself. When the anchor line up shifts frequently or has as rotating solos like WNBC, it throws things off. 

A common problem today is that stations have ten dozen newscasts but only want to stretch them between about 3 anchors. 

55 minutes ago, SnellKrell said:

WNBC has never taken this broadcast seriously!

 

When the station first announced the program, the promos told the audience that this half-hour would allow

WNBC News to dig deeper into stories that affected the Metropolitan Area.

 

Sounds good doesn't it?

 

Then what does WNBC do?  The Friday telecast is cut in half.  And what goes into the other 15 minutes?

 

Can you believe it?  Sara Gore and New York Live.

 

How ludicrous!!!!!!!

 

So much for a deeper dive into issues.

 

It's a joke!!!!!!

 

 

51 minutes ago, MorningNews said:

It’s also just a rehash of the 6pm news with more ad breaks since there’s no sports report.

4 & 11 pm typically sees David and Natalie rotating solo rather than consistently having them anchor the broadcast together. The same with Darlene & Michael/Pat & Gus on TINY. Feels very disjointed.

Simple lineup:

Adam & Rayna 11am & 4pm

David & Natalie 5 & 11pm

Chuck & Somebody other than above 6&7pm

Is there an official anchor for 7pm or a rotating arrangement?

NBC New York.com doesn't list 7pm under David or Natalie's profiles, and doesn't list any specific news time under Chuck's. 

WNBC might aswell Give 7:00 to Chuck & Adam. David & Natalie have enough newscasts, and Adam could be a reliable solo at 7 on the days Chuck is absent. 

On 2/11/2023 at 5:58 PM, NewEgg00 said:

The streaming service? Cool. The premium cable channel? There's no way they'll rebrand to such a long name like that. 

Anything Paramount has a penchant for excessively long names: "CBS News Bay Area Evening Edition at 5". 

You dont have to slap your name on everything Paramount, it creates a generic feel for all your products. 

Off topic but was Paramount the most famous brand in ViacomCBS to justify naming the entire company after it? At least if you named it CBS Global or something they could've slid the CBS eye logo next to everything -- like Comcast does with the Golf Channel NBC peackock logo -- to  have an easy identifier.

On 2/7/2023 at 11:50 PM, Myron Falwell said:

That was 15 years ago. The industry and the consumer is not the same today as in 2008 and admittedly, Fox may have been way ahead of their time.

True. The reverse has happened happened over time. Fox stations used to be my fox (insert city.com) now they've opted to do it by channel number: fox5ny.com. Fox Chicago is now Fox 32. NBC and CBS are the only o&o with consistent network-city website brands. 

Removing the channel number branding should be easy for CW stations though as thats already the case in several markets. 

10 hours ago, RaleighTVBOI1 said:

Well you’re gonna have to wait a little longer maybe 5 more years. Trinity Church is not done yet I’ll be a historic move cause no New York station the number #1 especially a flagship has moved HQs buildings in fact all of ABC News will move there too. 

This will be especially different becuase most tv channels in NYC are located within/near Midtown, Manhattan. WNYW being the outlier as it's well into the Upper East Side. 

On 12/25/2022 at 12:53 AM, Mrknowitall526 said:

Re: the idea of 10 PM news saturation, 

True, but the 4:30-7am and 5pm-6:30 pm news slots are already saturated in most markets. 10pm shouldn't make much difference.

On 2/9/2023 at 4:04 PM, Myron Falwell said:

The problem with late-night talk shows is that they have all been largely using the same exact formula for decades, a formula that Johnny Carson largely set in motion:

• A live announcer to introduce the program, announce the guests and cue the host to enter.
• A live in-studio audience.
• An in-house band.
• A desk for the host with adjacent couches or chairs for the guests. Maybe it includes an old-timey microphone!
• A monologue by the host, varying in length depending on the host.
• A second segment (either after the monologue or the first commercial break) with an extended series of comedy bits. Could be live in-studio or via tape.
• The guests come out one-by-one for extended interviews and (depending on the host) softball questions.
• A stand-up act or musical number by a guest band or singer to conclude the program.

Even as James Corden used Graham Norton's setup of having the guests come on all at once, he still used a house band and had a monologue. CraigyFerg didn't have a house band--or much of anything--but he still did a monologue (many of which were deeply compelling and riveting), interviewed guests and had a robot as his announcer. While Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and (especially) Seth Myers are exceptionally political, they all follow the formulas to some degree. But at least you can tell one Jimmy apart from the other Jimmy.

Variety and diversity would be good, but at least on the broadcast level most of the late night shows copying the same format have been pretty decent. Cable is a different story. 

I like Corden and Fallon the most because their shows are the least political. IMO the best parts of Jimmy Kimmel Live are when he isn't obsessing over Trump related subjects --which is EVERY night. Segments like Lie-witness news, unnecessary censorship and Baby Bachelor are hilarious. 

Modern report on the death of Bill McCreary featuring classic WNEW/WNYW News Clips from the 70s & 80s. So many faces that we haven't on seen on tv in years including John Roland & Lynn White. 

I really like Corden's show. His incarnation of the late late show really mastered the technique of celebrity group conversations, games, and viral videos. If it show were at 11:35, he'd have been formidable competition against Fallon and Kimmel. 

No other place to put this but The Late Late Show franchise will end after James Corden's departure. CBS will replace it with a reboot of Comedy Central's @Midnight. Sad. Corden had the best late night show as he was great at celebrity

games and gimmiks like Carpool Careoke. It would be great of Craig Ferguson was willing to return.

https://www.etonline.com/cbs-eyes-game-show-midnight-to-replace-the-late-late-show-after-james-cordens-exit-198784?amp